Expertise Beyond the Numbers

This year’s Kscope conference in Orlando was full of exciting announcements, tips and tricks directly from Oracle users, and plenty of great speaking sessions. Some of the most impactful developments highlighted at the conference include:

Groovy

Groovy is a dynamic, object-oriented programming language for Java platforms. It’s available in EPBCS, PBCS +1, and on-premises Hyperion Planning. Groovy has many powerful features that go well beyond what traditional calculation manager rules can do on their own. Examples of game-changing functionality include user input validation, focused data synchronizations and business rule executions, customized logging, traffic lighting, and near real-time consolidated reporting. We expect performance will improve significantly in applications that enable Groovy – it’s an integral part of the PBCS roadmap so it’s here to stay.

Blockchain

The future of the financial industry is on the verge of a major overhaul with decentralized ledgers. Using the blockchain for ERP allows for a verifiable and impartial system for tracking goods between vendors and customers. While many people envision a complete overhaul of their financial systems to incorporate the groundbreaking technology, few realize you can easily integrate another layer to the current systems, which can hold the powerful ledger. Whether using this additional block-chain layer for tracking or verifying receipt, banks and procurement systems will be able to undeniably locate the products using blockchain and ERPs.

Essbase Cloud & REST API’s

The use of REST API’s have been getting a lot of love in the EPM World for their flexibility and interoperability. REST API’s allow developers to choose which language they want to use to interface with the application, including cURL with batch scripts, Java, Visual Basic, Jython and Groovy to name a few. Oracle’s Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (PBCS) and Oracle’s Financial Close and Consolidation Cloud Service (FCCS) have made extensive use of REST API’s, allowing customers to automate many different processes with the method of their choice. Essbase Cloud Service has followed suit and is now offering a REST API, in addition to the traditional Java API. The new REST API will open up many different possibilities and provide much greater flexibility to those using the Essbase Cloud Service who may not want to use Java to automate a myriad of different processes including Essbase cube management, running calculations and other routine maintenance tasks.

Autonomous Consolidations

This is a brand new feature that has been added to FCCS. Previously, users would have to manually consolidate after loading data — the system knows it needs to consolidate because data status is impacted but most systems force the user to execute the action – but that is now a thing of the past in FCCS. With autonomous consolidations, the system is smart enough to recognize that data has changed, and it needs to consolidate. It will take available system resources and execute those consolidations – it will not impact user performance or reporting – it will eliminate or minimize the need for that action of consolidation. It makes the system so much smarter and allows users to always be with the data that’s right, not data that needs an action.